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Posts Tagged ‘Personal Transformation’

One of the kids takes a hard hit and is lying on the ground. The coach runs over, sees that she’s not seriously hurt, then says the mantra of coaches everywhere: “Shake it off.”

At first that might sound harsh, but it’s actually great practice for life. If you’re too hurt to play on, you’ll be helped off the field and cared for, no problem. But if you’re well enough to play on, even though it hurts a bit and the wind has been knocked out of you, the best thing to do is shake it off and get back in the game.

Whether in sports or business, winners know that to win, you have to play hard. And when you play hard, you WILL get hurt once in a while.

Failures and mistakes are common and necessary. Winners know how to shake it off, get back on their feet, and move on from failure, quickly adjusting course without wallowing in the bruises to their egos.

The next time you find yourself momentarily on your back, ask yourself—How bad is it really? Do I need to be helped off the field? Or can I shake it off, take a deep breath, and get back into the game?

I have some friends, a married couple, who have worked out an agreement. He hates to talk on the phone. Every time their home phone rings, even if they’re in the middle of watching a movie, he looks up at her, and she answers it.

In exchange, he is in charge of all killing in the house – spiders, silverfish, mice, the works. Both of them probably grumble a bit when they do their assigned job, but in the end, each is grateful for the other’s willingness to take a hated task off their hands.

There’s a great message in this for anyone with aspirations to rise through the ranks in business. Every workplace and every industry includes some tasks that are less desirable than others. Everyone knows what they are, and when the boss asks for a volunteer to take one of these tasks on, you can practically see tumbleweeds blowing through the office.

Imagine how disheartening that is for the boss—and what a relief it is when you step forward to accept the job.

While most people spend their time procrastinating or complaining, winners take on the least desirable parts of their work without question or complaint. And in the process, they make decision makers grateful.

Your job is imperfect. Your boss is imperfect. Your colleagues, boy, are THEY imperfect. None of this is news. The question is what you are doing about it.

If you’re accepting life’s little imperfections, that’s healthy. Giving constructive advice to improve things, good for you! But if you are complaining—aimlessly, pointlessly complaining—then it’s time for you to go. Your company is better without you. If you are taking checks from a company and then stabbing them in the back, you’ve got to think about your integrity. So off you go.

But wait! Before you go, let’s put things in perspective. Did you complain about your last job, too? Your last boss, your last colleagues? If so, you’re pretty likely to complain about the next ones as well. Then I guess you’ll have to cut and run from that one too.

Sounds like a pretty dismal future, don’t you think?

Instead, give yourself 24 hours to think about your situation. Focus on the things that are good, and come up with a strategy for improving the things that aren’t so good. But one way or another, promise yourself to turn off the pointless complaints for good.

Let’s imagine for a second that your fairy godmother comes along, and “poof” you’re now the CEO of your organization AND you are featured as running the #1 organization in your industry, AND you’re doing it without breaking a sweat.

Let me ask you: Would you be operating on the same habits, decision-making skills, and thinking as you have now? Of course not.

Well, what if today, you made every decision, managed your calendar, and thought and performed AS IF you were at that level? Would that change your performance on the duties you currently are in charge of? Of course you would!

AND would it make you infinitely more promotable and allow you to get more done with less time and effort—and focus on what really matters? There’s no question!

Imagine your success if you grew by 10 to 25 percent every quarter in your ability to do your job and the job of the person you report into. Think of how much more effective and promotable you would be. The way to get there is to let go of the “story” about why you’re too busy to sharpen your skill-set. Start sharpening it every day without exception.

If you’re like me, you’ve known some people who you’d trust with your very life. And if you’re like me, you know others who you wouldn’t trust to put the non-dairy creamer in your coffee. There are probably a million reasons a person goes one direction or another. But the reasons matter less than the outcomes.

All you can do is watch for clues about who’s who, and do everything in your power to be the trusted one for other people by using nothing but authentic communication.

In his bestselling book The Speed of Trust, Stephen Covey calls trust “the new currency in the new global economy.” Nothing builds trust more than authentic communication, and nothing breaks trust quicker than inauthentic communication—especially with your boss.

Every time you talk around your boss or don’t do what you said you’d do, that trust is eroded further until there’s nothing left to build a relationship on.

Instead, own your intention to communicate authentically. Be transparent. Say what you mean. Follow through on your commitments. And when you do, you’ll find that others are more likely to communicate authentically with you. Everybody wins.